Category: Witches' CovenLocation: The Imperial Conquered Lands, the City of ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Âºr-Kanesh

The ShievrenWithin the southern empire, there is a rumour. Those rumours tell of mysterious deaths, the corpses bloated and bruised. Witnesses to these deaths tell of unsuspecting victims engaged in normal, everyday activities. Then all of a sudden, the victim gets convulsions and seizures, eyes bulging and mouth foaming. Strangely only the wealthy and powerful ever gets this rare disease.

These deaths are the workings of the Shievren, a witches coven based in the coniferous forest known as the Nebelwald. The witches are approached through the intermediary agent "Grey Dog" in the city of Ur-Kanesh. The witches always require something from the victim, hair, blood and the like. The sages of Yinos believe that these are sewn into their strange puppets and boiled in small ceramic pots they call the Foetherii.

The cult of the StranglerThe strangler is a chaos entity worshipped by this cult. The cult has been outlawed in every major civilization and cultists are hunted wherever they may be. Still their services can be purchased by those who know where to look, yet only the desperate seek to do so, for more than once a crazed strangler cultist has been known to turn upon his employer. Often these assassins are no more than rambling madmen met in dark alleys or sleeping in rags in the gutter. If they cannot get any assignments, they make their living through murder robbery.

The cultists use a strong narcotic* when they perform their ritual killing and they wash their hands in goat blood before the kill. Such are the ways of the cult and such are the teachings of the Mad Strangler. The narcotic lends them unnatural awareness and the blood sanctifies their hands. The stranglers always strangle with their bare hands, and the strength in their sinewy arms is legendary.

*The narcotic they use is called Khamot and is drunk before they bathe their hands. It makes them unnaturally aware and long time usage often result in psychotic black outs. Of course, the strangler cultists ain't exactly stable in the first place.

The Royal KnightsThe Royal Knights is a detachment of guardsmen from the royal guard. They receive elite training and highly ornamental as well as somewhat functional equipment. Only the very best recruits from noble and highly pious families may get the training necessary to become a Royal Knight. In battle these knights ride alongside the King and the Crown Prince, safely perusing the battle from the rear of the ranks. It is known to be one of the safest martial professions in the realms and such young men surely attract the attention of pretty young women, eager for the perfect match. They are the heroes of the Silmarites, and when they occasionally enter battle to save their King, they do so with competitive ferocity, eager to be the first to slay those insolent enough to threaten their King. They are impetuous but not that eager to enter the carnage of front line battle.

The Order of the SwordThe Order of the Sword is a Kingdom Order based in the Malheuerat Fortification, a major stronghold on the Lion Road in the Cyllerean Mountains. The members of the Order can only enter through invitation, and once a member there is no return, for the secrets of the Order are sacrosanct. The Order teaches a unique combination of Swordplay and, some would say, Sorcery, using rift channelling to imbue themselves with enhanced abilities and techniques, and to imbue their blades with enhanced attributes. While their rift channelling in not earth shattering in scope, they do manage to achieve slight advantages this way.

The Order focus primarily on fencing techniques and the ritualistic magic involved is not a major field of study. Members of the order tend to favour combat in which agility plays a role, but they have no objections about wearing panzer when they enter chaotic battles. Their use of ritual magic is a well guarded secret, a necessity due to the zealous nature of the Silmarites.

The Dreamer CultistsThe Dreamer Cultists believe that reality is just the broken dream of an entity known as the dreamer. Our dreams are the real reality they claim and thus these cultists spend most of their lives studying in vast libraries within the realms of sleep. They favour narcotics and other dream enhancing substances, and entering one of their temples can be an unnerving experience, as nearly everyone therein will be in a comatose state.

The Monks of Ketange-IshatalThese are the ancient Holders of Lore, keepers of secrets; the Monks of Ketange-Ishatal live quiet lives of meditation and contemplation on the P’tuah Plateau. While they receive combat training, especially in the art of wrestling and staff fighting, the Monks focus primarily on lore and each monk has a field of specialty.

The Asdarien Vale Witches’ CovenThe Asdarien Vale Coven is the only openly active Coven of Silmaroth. The HexenJaegers know each of their names, know their whereabouts, has promised a large reward for their heads, but has yet to kill a single member of the Coven. The reason is that these witches dwell in Asdarien Vale, in a forest known as Silent wood, and they are the concubines of the Wyrm of Asdarien Vale, a multi gendered dragon fiend, unseen by any but the witches and the one they please in weekly orgies of obscene pleasure. The tales that reach the Silmarites about the blasphemous orgies within Asdarien Vale sicken and enrage the population, and there is a vast reward offered for the slaying of the slithering, phallic wyrm of mist and mystery.

The Witches specialize in divination and summoning and many a scheming Silmarite noble has visited the wild-eyed, nude, mud covered witches one week and condemned them the next. Apparently just as surprised as their fellow citizens that demon spawn would manifest in their rivals mansion, a telltale sign of Asdarien Coven involvement.

The Iron CabalThe Iron Cabal is an underground organization of warlocks and sorcerers. Life for a magic user is difficult at best in Silmar, and this Cabal operates a number of hideaways and secret facilities throughout the Kingdom. The Iron Cabal is ruled by a council of sage sorcerers and membership can only be attained through apprenticeship to a current Iron Cabal member.

Category: Holy Order of Witch Hunters, Excorsists and InquisitorsLocation: Silmaroth

The HexenjaegersThe HexenJaegers, often referred to as the Holy Order, is an order of Holy Warriors whose sole purpose is to discover and banish the presence of evil. According to their doctrines, witchcraft is the ultimate of evil, and their puritan soldiers can be discovered everywhere within the empire. Every HexenJaeger receive a magic defying necklace upon admission to the order and thus they prove to be lethal adversaries to any mage. Still such entities as the Asdarien Wyrm prove to be fatal for them and steel is as effective as ever against a HexenJaeger out for your blood.

The White Shield Caravan CompanyThe White Shield is a typical Caravan Company, operating from Therben and transporting coal from Gerbenburg to Therben, as well as Iron from Ardamien or the Grey Hills to Therben. They hire mercenaries as caravan guards and they train merchants in the art of leadership and numismatics. A White Shield Caravan will typically be outfitted with a lot of guards and a huge number of wagons. They transport goods in large quantities and believe in the safety of the convoy principle.

Sons of Silmar, Mercenary CompanyThe Sons of Silmar is one of the largest Mercenary Companies within the Kingdom. They only admit Silmarites from the Western Province and are haughty and disdainful towards everyone else. They refer to themselves as the pure blooded and are considered, by non-Silmarites, to be racist, chauvinist pigs with a penchant for ambush and slaughter. They are currently rumoured to be in the Duchy of Borenland, fighting for the Kingdom.